Rachel, a mum of three living outside Grenoble, believed that her 6 year old son had autism, leading to him being placed by the state in a psychiatric hospital day unit like thousands of other French children in the same situation. The team at the unit did not give a clear cut diagnosis and so Rachel decided she would take all three of her children elsewhere in order to have them assessed. At this point, the hospital called Social Services who threatened to take away Rachel’s children.
In its most recent report regarding autistic children in France, the United Nations stated that these children “continue to be subjected to widespread violations of their rights”. Following on from this, the French state has been forced to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to families for inadequate care of autistic children in recent years.
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